Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Andy Weir was born in Davis, California on June 16, 1972. He is the son of a particle physicist and an electrical engineer. At an early age, he studied science fiction works including Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke works. He also started working as a computer programmer for Sandia National Laboratories at a very tender age of 15, later working for huge corporations like Blizzard where he worked in Warcraft 2 and on AOL. He has been working as software engineer ever since and is also a devoted space nerd. He started publishing his works in his 20s and still works as a software engineer. He is famed as the programmer and the installer of the video game War craft 2: Tides of Darkness.

Personal life

Andy Weir studied in the University of California San Diego where he did computer science. However he lacked the funds to pay the fees and so quit without ever finishing the course. This never hindered him from becoming the biggest programmer and also the youngest. The author has a deep fear of flying and is agnostic. He confessed to not having flied for a long time, saying he last flew to Phoenix in 2007 to visit his mother. His stroke of good luck started in 2013 when big companies started asking him to sign lucrative deals for his book, The Martian. He claims to have been mostly in disbelieve as he didn’t expect such enthusiasm for any of his works. He says that he never once flew to New York or LA to meet the people offering these deals and he did everything on the phone. He even jokes that he thought it was a scam when he was first contacted. He lives in Mountain View California with his two cats Jojo and Demi who are much doted upon.

In his modest two story home in Mountain View, one gets clear evidence of his love for space science. A Buzz Aldrin decal is what greats you in the front hallway and inside other thrilling sights await. Since he is a gracious host, he normally shows off the computer program he made when writing the Martian. The programmer maps out earth trajectories and also those on Mars. Every one of his work is scientifically accurate and not just imaginary words.

Writing

Andy weir started publishing his works on his website www.galactanet.com. His first novel was the Martian and it is what he is most identified with. The novel talks about an astronaut who is stranded on mars and how he survives and finds a way home. He made the novel as scientifically accurate as possible. This made for extensive research on the internet for the history of manned spaceflight, the conditions and botanical life on Mars, and orbital mechanics. The book made it to the kindle bestsellers list after he was requested by readers to make it available on kindle.

Mark Watney is the Astronaut in the novel. He lands on mars and six days later, he has no way out and he is sure he will be the first person to die there. He finds that the dust in Mars is overwhelming and this is made worse by his crew evacuating thinking he is dead. He is then forced to use his resourcefulness to survive since even if he managed to send a message to earth, he would be long dead before the rescue arrived. With his relentless will to survive and his engineering skills, one can only read to the last chapter to see if he survives the odds. This is one of the best reads of the 21st century and it’s stimulating and full of suspense.

The hardcover book was published when he sold the rights to the Crown Publishing Group. The book debuted at number 12 on the New York Times Bestsellers list and it was praised by the Wall Street Journal as the first pure sci-fi novel in many years. The novel has continued to be a sensation and will be made into a motion picture soon. Matt Damon is rumored to be the lead actor and he will portray Mark Watney.

His short story, The Egg, has also been adapted into a series of YouTube videos and also a one act play. He published it on his website and also did a lot of publicity for it online. His pen name is Jack Sharp and he has always interacted with readers online through his website and several other forums. Most of his works have enough physics and Math to satisfy even the most critical of Sci-fi fans.

The most amazing thing about Andy Weir is his genius mind. One will realize as they read the Martian that everything is written to precision and involves lots of calculations. He shows the amount of calories that Mark Watney will need daily to survive on Mars and the temperature that his shelter needs to maintain for him to survive. This is well researched work with aspects of chemistry and biology. Although he never graduated as a computer scientist, he loves programming and claims it is a reliable day job that always guarantees income.

His earlier works include “The Observer” and “Theft of Pride”, which he says is a space opera thing. He claims that he is happy they were lost in the pre-internet era. Still, one wonders about their content and how they would impact on the reader. Could they have been bigger hits even better than The Martian? For a book that first sold at 99 cents on Amazon, The Martian surpassed all of Weirs expectations and showed the world that he was an expert writer. His future works will definitely be waited upon by Sci-fi fans with much anticipation as they are bound to be the best.

Andy Weir has been interviewed on many aspects including his fear of flying. He has not yet stepped onto the shooting location of the movie adaptation of The Martian in Hungary. With flight fear or not, Weir is one compelling character and he claims that his characters portray who he is and who he hopes to be without the bad parts.

With the latest book in the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney coming out soon, we wanted to make the very first book in the series our book of the month.

Greaney is an incredible author and if you love the "lone badass" type of books then you will LOVE the Court "Gray Man" Gentry series. Read more about it.

Featured Series

It might seem like overkill, but we're giving The Gray Man series our featured series of the month.

Honestly this is such a great series and we feel not enough people read it so we want to push it. Read more about The Gray Man series and seriously if you haven't read it - start! Amazing thrillers.

Featured Author

Mark Greaney is an incredibly talented author. Not only does he write the Gray Man series however he also writes various Jack Ryan novels. Many feel he is the best writer of them and he truly is a great author. We're happy to award our author of the month to Mark Greaney.

Did You Know…

Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly Fiction Competition when he was a senior in college. He has an estimated number of over 400 million copies sold and his work has been published in more than 38 languages all over the world. His books have topped New York’s bestsellers’ list thirteen times and he also has to his credit of becoming the bestseller in countries as diverse as Sweden and Japan.